Homeschooling my 2 - Homeschool Blogger

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We have a critter! - - Toad Study - Post #1

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:09:00 -0500

Weeks and weeks ago we rearranged our aquarium situation here so that we could have a larger aquarium for fish and a small one for critters that we may find during our nature walks. We thought it would be fun to bring something home once in awhile, study it for a week or so, and then release it back into the wild. Frogs, Toads, Snakes, Salamanders, Newts... anything cool and interesting.That was our plan... BUT the problem was that we couldn't find a critter to save our lives!! Well, Daddy came through for us today! He found us a critter while mowing a lawn this afternoon.

Meet our new friend the American Toad...

Daddy carefully captured him and put him in his minnow bucket for us. Meanwhile we were at the park playing with our SMpls HUG friends... so he delivered the Toad to us there and then went on with his work. After we all peeked in at him, I made sure he was in a safe, and shady, spot while we finished playing at the park and then we loaded him up for the ride home. After a brief stop at the pet store for some crickets we quickly got him inside and set up his new temporary home. Here are a few things we learned about Toads just in researching how to set up his habitat...

Toads need a place to hide... a shelter made from driftwood or rocks will work fine. We grabbed a shelter from the pet store that is a half of a hollow log. Toads like to hide and lie in wait for their food. We bought some crickets for him to eat.

Toads need dirt or some sort of material in the bottom of the habitat. They like to bury themselves, so the material should be about as deep as they are high. We used some chipped wood that we had from a fallen tree that we ran through our wood chipper. I'm not sure if this was a good idea now that I read how they like to bury themselves, if he seems unhappy we'll switch to dirt.

Toads need a bit of water... not a lot like frogs. They need a dish of water big enough for them to sit in. They absorb water through their skin, so you will not see them actually drinking the water. Never us tap water since it usually contains chlorine. Use distilled water... or you could boil tap water to remove the chlorine. We used bottled water and a spare food bowl that we had here for our Hamster.

Sort of off topic, but we also learned that Hamsters can have crickets once a week or so as a treat. Most really like and enjoy them... and they are a good source of protein for the Hamster. Looks like our Hamster, Killer, might have a treat coming later this evening!!

Learn more about American Toads and listen to their call HERE.
So that is the start of our Toad Study. We hope you learned a bit about Toads. They seem to have been given a bad, creepy, name... but I don't think he's all that bad!!

To be continued...

Sharing our view

Mon, 9 Jun 2008 19:29:00 -0500

We live in the basement so our view is a bit limited. We also live in the city, so wildlife is a bit sparse. But I thought I would share a few of the things we see from our window on a regular basis. (Keep in mind these photos were taken through the screen on our window.)

This is a normal, and fun, sight from our window. Tyler and Daddy made this funny Squirrel feeder that looks like a table and chairs. We have had lots of fun watching these cute guys this year. This particular Squirrel is one of several babies that were born in our eaves earlier this Spring.

These little House Sparrows are plentiful outside our window. There always seems to be a crew of them nibbling on the seeds in the feeder and on the ground around it. Tyler and Daddy made this bird feeder as well.

We also have plenty of these guys outside our window... in a wide array of colors and patterns. Pigeons galore!!

That's about it for our view.... other than a glimpse of a Cardinal now and then. I hope you enjoyed looking out our window with us!

In other news:

Our socks did not sprout. Disappointing, but we'll try it again in the Fall!

We got our microscope today!! So far we have looked at paper, salt, human hair, tap water, cheek cells, a dollar bill, and a penny. I can't wait to get out and get some pond water to peek at! Until then we'll be running around the house like crazy people looking for things to look at under our microscope!

We discovered Minneapolis Public Radio today. They have a Classical music station! If you live in the Twin Cities it is at 99.5 FM. We are loving it in the car!

Sprouting Socks - Post #1

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 15:49:00 -0500

Today we decided to try out a fun experiment that I found in a book called 365 Nature Crafts & Activities. Basically, you put a pair of old socks on over your shoes and walk around in the tall grass and weeds. Then you bring your socks home and put them in a shallow pan and keep them moist. After a few days any seeds that got on your socks when you walked in the grass should begin to sprout. Sounds fun, huh? The book says the best time of year to do this experiment is in the early Fall, but we decided to try it anyway. I think we'll do it again in the Fall... in the same spot so that we can compare.

So here is Tyler walking in the tall grass and weeds in his socks...

I took a couple of pictures of some of the things growing there so we could compare them to our sprouts when they start popping up...

and

And lastly, here is our pan of grass stained, dirty, and wet socks. The things we'll do in the name of education....

I'll let you know when (and if) we see sprouts!

Meet Mr. Question...

Mon, 2 Jun 2008 11:24:00 -0500

Let me introduce you to Mr. Question...

Yes, that's my Tyler. Here are just a few of the questions I have had to ATTEMPT to answer out of the blue over the last couple of days...

Why are Flamingos pink?

Why do things cost money? Its just paper.

How do Chameleons change colors?

Why do girls shave their legs?

How do things look different through 3D glasses?

How do fans make air?

Look out! Here come the yard sales!

Sun, 1 Jun 2008 19:35:00 -0500

The kids and I were able to get out yard saling today, for the first time this year. I love sales! We didn't find a whole lot though. There were a ton of sales yesterday but not today, figures. We were able to find this shelf though. At $3 I thought it would make a nice plant shelf below our window. We live in the basement so I figured the only way to successfully grow a few plants would be to have them right in the window.
The two little plants on the shelf came from the sales today too... one is a Spider Plant and the other a Bloodleaf (or Chicken Gizzard). Eventually there will be more plants, but these little guys are looking cute up there for now.
Those are Nature Prints made from Sculpey Clay hanging down from the quilt rod. We made those with our homeschool group a few weeks ago. I got the idea from Melissa over at In the Sparrow's Nest.
Now to decide what else to grow!

Happy Hail Day!

Sat, 31 May 2008 19:26:00 -0500

We've been hanging low this week because I haven't been feeling well. Soon after we got home from our Nature Walk on Tuesday I began feeling the crud... achy body, stuffed up nose, headache, all that fun stuff. So I spent lots of time resting. I also got a lot of thinking and planning done for school next year. Its so fun to be putting it all together. But today I was feeling a bit better so we headed out to Wood Lake Nature Center to check on our friends, the Red-Winged Blackbirds. They were there and singing their songs for us. What struck us as strange though is that there were absolutely NO ducks or geese to be seen. Not a single one. Normally they are all over the place there. I guess they may be hiding out nesting? We just thought it was weird not to see any since we usually see many species of ducks along with lots of geese. But we had a nice walk anyway. My camera was having a hard time with the sun for some reason, but I did manage to get one ok photo of Tyler and Emily together...

We got home just in time to hear the sirens going off so we headed to the basement and waited for the storm to hit. We had some thunder and lightening... and heavy rain... and small hail. Hail! Tyler was excited over the hail. I think this is the first time he's seen it. Daddy even brought him in a handful to check out. He kept it in a bowl until it melted. I snapped a couple of photos while it was coming down. These were taken through our basement window, so they're not the best but I think they turned out cool...

They were about pea size, some more like dime size. We were lucky, some places in MN had hail up to golf ball size!! The storms have moved past us now, but they are still going to the southeast of us... some growing stronger. Hope everyone stays safe in the path!

Nature Walk at the Quaking Tamarak Bog

Tue, 27 May 2008 19:20:00 -0500

We went for a nature walk with my CM Nature Study in MN group today at the Quaking Tamarak Bog in Theodore Wirth Park, right here in Minneapolis. I am constantly amazed at the little hidden away oasises of nature we have right here in the City. There were 14 of us walking today... 5 Moms and 9 children. It was so fun to meet some new friends!

We met a couple of ladies along the trail who brought our attention to some fairly loud bird sounds coming from a nearby tree. We were able to pinpoint it to a small round hole in the tree quite a ways up off the ground. I tried to look in the hole using my binoculars, but I couldn't see anything. As I was looking, though, a Woodpecker came along... it landed on the tree and walked over to the hole. It stuck its head in the hole for a few seconds and then flew off. I am certain we were watching a Downy Woodpecker's nest!

"The downy's nest is a hole, usually in a partly decayed tree;
an old apple tree is a favorite site and a new excavation is
made each year. There are from four to six white eggs, which
are laid on a nice bed of chips almost as fine as sawdust.
The door to the nest is a circle about an inch and a quarter across."
~Anna Botsford Comstock - The Handbook of Nature Study - Page 72~

It was nice to have Amanda join us for this walk. She is very knowledgeable about Wildflowers and the likes. She helped us to identify quite a few of the flowers we saw along the trail...

Wild Calla

Star Flower

Wild Columbine

She even introduced us to a Wild Edible... Garlic Mustard. It is an Invasive Species, so we picked a leaf to try it out. When rubbed it smells like Garlic. It has a salad green, lettuce, leafy flavor. Tyler says he didn't like it! :)

Garlic Mustard

Our new friend, Heather, brought her microscope along! She grabbed a sample of the water from the Bog and the kids took turns looking at it under the microscope. They really liked this part.

Tyler decided it would be cool to have a microscope... I was telling my Dad this over the phone and he said that he has one at his house that he never uses and he will send it to Tyler! Yay!

We had a really fun walk and enjoyed spending time with all of our friends, both old and new! We hope to get together again real soon!

A different kind of bird study...

Mon, 26 May 2008 20:12:00 -0500

We spent the day at the Minnesota Zoo today. There are many many types of animals there of all shapes and sizes but ,once again, the birds stood out for us. So we took the opportunity to work in a little Bird Study. First stop, the World of Birds Show...

East African Crowned Crane
Found in eastern Congo, Uganda, and Kenya to central Tanzania.

Red-Tailed Hawk
(this one is half Albino)
Found right here in MN, as well as around the U.S.A

King Vulture
Found from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.

Red Junglefowl
From NW India, through Assam, Burma, Thailand and Malaya to Indo China, South China, Hainan, Sumatra and Java.

Hyacinth Macaw
Found in only three areas of Brazil and the eastern border areas of Bolivia, and in extreme NW Paraguay.

Bald Eagle
Native to MN... they range throughout the 48 contiguous states, Alaska, and Canada.

Also making appearances:
Green-Cheeked Amazon
Rose-Breasted Cockatoo

The pond was a beehive of activity... a pair of Trumpeter Swans were nesting along the shore. A Canadian Goose wandered a little too close to the nest and the male Swan made quick work of chasing him off! I also saw a couple of tall white birds in the distance that I think were a Crane of some sort.

We spent some time on the Minnesota Trail where we were able to get up close and personal with some native birds... both on display and in the wild at the bird feeders.

Pileated Woodpecker
Great-Horned Owl
Bald Eagle
Chickadees
Grackle
Hummingbirds

The Tropics Trail always has a variety of very colorful birds to enjoy... and they were out and showing off for us today!! Flamingos, Bali Minah, Greater Indian Hornbill, Green Aracari, Ducks of many shapes and sizes and colors, and lots of others that we couldn't identify!

We even found birds at the Family Farm. Chickens galore! Chickens in fences and Chickens running wild! There were also Chicks and hatching eggs in the barn to observe.

After our stop at the Farm, we had a pretty heated discussion trying to figure out the answer to that age old question... which came first, the Chicken or the egg?

Weekend update from Aquarium City

Mon, 19 May 2008 19:47:00 -0500

This weekend has been a fairly calm one. Tyler had his best friend over for a sleepover Friday night and he was here most of Saturday as well. They had fun and got to go for a nature walk. Last night we ran to the store for a few things we needed. I found the cutest little "Ladybug Playground"... basically a little plastic cage to keep a few Ladybugs in to study. Oh and we got some new colored pencils too! Yay!

Today we put into action something we've been planning for awhile. I wanted to switch our aquariums around to allow for a "critter tank" so that we could bring home a critter every now and then to study. We decided to get a bigger "fish tank" and use our 10 gallon one for a "critter tank". I came across a bigger aquarium today on Craigslist, so off we went!! But first we had to stop and drop off Daddy's gas can and weed trimmer where he was. Tyler decided to "help" Daddy out a little while we were there...

In the meantime Emily was checking out the Dandelions in the yard...

But back to the aquarium situation.... I have a plan!
So our little 10 gallon aquarium has been cleaned up and it now has a screen cover on it so that we can put critters in it to study. Snakes, frogs, toads, turtles, salamanders... whatever. Just for a few days and then we go release them and get somebody else to study.
The big 29 gallon aquarium that we picked up today is going to turn into a Mississippi River scene, with fish found in the River. Sounds cool, huh?
We also have a 10 gallon aquarium here with our Hamster, Killer, in it.
Talk about aquarium city! But I am excited about the changes and looking forward to the fun we will have enjoying nature here.

I'll leave you with this...

Hope you had a "cool" weekend!